American-style civil lawsuits targeting businesses that facilitate human trafficking not needed in Canada because of strong legislation, says head of London women's agency

The state of Texas has launched a civil lawsuit against Motel 6 in Spring, Texas, alleging the hotel harbours criminal activity, including human trafficking and prostitution. (DALE CARRUTHERS, The London Free Press)

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Standing outside the hotel where she says her teenage daughter was forced to work as a prostitute, a distraught mother describes how the ordeal has left her child psychologically scarred.

The Houston-area woman, who didn’t want her name used for fear it could identify her underage daughter, says the youngster ran away after meeting people online. The girl, 13 at the time, ended up at a Motel 6 in Spring, a large suburb of Houston, where she was coerced into working as a prostitute.

The girl’s family eventually learned of her whereabouts and retrieved her from the hotel after three weeks, the mother said.

“We kind of set up our own sting . . . and we brought her home. But she has significant trauma from the time that she was gone,” the mother said. “She’s definitely not the child that I know and raised. I just thank God that I got her back.”

The state of Texas has launched a civil lawsuit against the motel, alleging it harbours habitual criminal activity, including trafficking in persons, prostitution and illegal drug offences, according to a statement of claim.

“(The) defendant knowingly tolerates, and has failed to make reasonable efforts to abate the criminal activities at the location,” the claim alleges.

Civil lawsuits against businesses with suspected ties to prostitution are a new weapon in the state’s war on human trafficking.

“It’s just one of the tools that we use to hold people accountable for profiting off of the sex trade,” said Julie Countiss, the assistant county attorney in Harris County, where the lawsuit was filed in October.

The lawsuit is seeking remedies rather than money, Countiss said.

“We’re suing them to get them to take steps to address the problem.”

The lawsuit seeks to have the hotel’s owner make changes that include upgrading surveillance cameras, providing police with access to surveillance footage, prohibiting cash-only payments, eliminating hourly rates, limiting stays to seven days, requiring customers to present government identification and requiring visitors to check in at the front desk.

None of the allegations has been proven in court. The hotel denies all of the allegations, Countiss said.

Megan Walker, the head of the London Abused Women’s Centre, applauded officials in Texas for taking action against human trafficking, but said Canada’s tough legislation on the crime makes civil lawsuits unnecessary.

Under Canadian law, anyone who knowingly benefits financially or materially from human trafficking could be imprisoned for up to 10 years.

“Canada is way ahead of where the United States is,” Walker said of human-trafficking laws.

“We are taking an approach as a country that this is a criminal matter, not a civil matter.”

Dale Carruthers is one of 20 ­international journalists ­taking part in the Foreign Press ­Centre’s Combating ­Trafficking in ­Persons trip. The group is travelling to Washington, D.C., ­Houston, Texas, and Los Angeles for the two-week program, ­sponsored by the U.S. government